My thoughts about writing, books, and perhaps other stuff. Occasional reviews and commentary on things of interest to speculative fiction writers.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Supporting Writers and Artists

Right now, there's a lot of buzz about supporting writers, artists and creatives. Especially those who don't work for big publishers and other companies. I can only really speak from the writing side, but here are a few things you can do if you want to support somebody.

1. Buy direct from the publisher or writer if possible. True, many self published writers only sell through Amazon. If the publisher or writer has an e-store on their website, however, they get a lot more of the cover price of the book if you buy from them. (Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to buy ebooks from a device-specific store for them to work on your device). Also, Smashwords is better than Amazon. And if you do buy from Amazon and the writer has links on their website, use those links. They likely have them set up for Amazon Associates, which gives the writer a little more.

2. Leave reader reviews, Goodreads reviews, or reviews on social media. Reviews make a huge difference to sales. Even bad reviews can actually help. In general, try to avoid leaving five star or one star reviews as those are the ones that tend to be scrutinized...people tend to assume five star reviews come from friends and one star reviews from enemies.

3. Follow your favorite writers and artists on your preferred social media, letting them know you're a fan. Believe me, we appreciate it. Or comment on their blogs. Writing in particular is a lonely profession and it helps to know you connected with somebody out there.